News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #115…
See your blurb here. Have you released a new book? Are you promoting an old one? I’ll allow up to three (3) blurbs per newsletter, one per author, so drop me a line at steve@stevenmmoore.com and include the text of your blurb in the email message. First come, first serve—in other words, FIFO—and I’ll accumulate and flush the queue every month. It’s advertising, increasing your name recognition, reader outreach—whatever you want to call it in marketing lingo—and it’s free! Why am I doing this? First, I can’t seem to sell books, but maybe I can help you sell yours. Second, readers of this blog and I might see a book we’d like to read too, one we wouldn’t otherwise notice (of course, that’s the idea!).
Authors: This is worth your while because there are many real visitors to this blog (see below), and it’s free. Make your blurbs no longer than the paragraph above. They must be in English (but aren’t limited to U.S. writers), fiction books only, and I won’t promote romance or erotica books. Please limit the blurb to one book, but you can mention if it’s in a series (# whatever after the title). Include the link to the ebook (be assured I’ll check it). I won’t include your email—this can’t be a query for reviews. Your ebook’s retail price has to be less than $5, it doesn’t have to be on Amazon, you don’t have to have four- or five-star reviews yet, and you don’t have to include any special offers.
Readers: My endorsement of the author’s book is neither intended nor implied. (I probably haven’t even read it!) And don’t assume that the author sympathizes with or endorses opinions expressed in this newsletter or blog either. If you like what you read in the blurb, use the link to the book’s page, wherever it might lead, in order to find more information. Because this newsletter is archived, links might disappear with time—that’s a feature of the internet. In that case, don’t blame me. You can just search for the book if you read a blurb from 2016 in 2018 and the link doesn’t work.
Too big to fail? Hachette Livre will buy Perseus. Mergers in the publishing business have consequences similar to those of airline mergers—higher prices for consumers (the readers), less product quality of service (the books), and exploitation of workers (the authors). Whatever happened to anti-monopoly laws in the U.S.? French Hachette by accretion is putting other publishers out of business, especially small imprints and presses. Of course, that’s what they want! But we don’t have to give in to them. I check the publisher of a book now. If it’s on my blacklist (Hachette and its subsidiaries are), I won’t buy the book. You shouldn’t either! Same for authors who want to eliminate any competition (there are many now).
Apple v. DoJ. They lost! The arrogant multinational of Jobs and Cook will now pay $400 million to ebook lovers (no, I don’t know how that will work); they will also pay $50 million in legal costs to the 30 states who joined with DoJ and sued the Big Five and Apple. Jobs’s “agency model” was reviled by sane people everywhere. The Big 5 traditional publishers (Hachette is one) settled with DoJ long ago; Apple persisted. SCOTUS declined to hear Apple’s appeal. Finito. Apple pays. Not surprisingly, both the NY Times and Wall Street Journal lamented the decision–they’re always biased toward traditional publishers (News Corps Harper Collins owns the WSJ).
Of course, Amazon eventually caved to the Big Five (they were selling reasonably priced trad-pubbed ebooks, by the way, and paying the publishers royalties corresponding to their inflated prices–this was really an Apple attack on Amazon); Amazon adopted their “agency model” anyway, the consequence being diminished ebook sales for them because readers won’t pay ebook prices at or more than paper version prices (since then, and like many other readers, I’ve only read trad-pubbed ebooks when they’re on sale–damned if I’ll pay more than $5 for any ebook!). But the end of this egregious lawsuit is something to celebrate. Now, if DoJ could just win the encryption cases, we could doubly smack Apple around–they deserve it.
They’re even on the front page of WSJ! Speking of WSJ, last week Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal had an article about books on its front page. That in itself is so unusual I went outside to see if the Earth was still spinning (hard to do that in the morning, of course, especially without my coffee hit). While the WSJ is certainly part of traditional publishing—at least they’re up front and obvious about their biased news coverage compared to the NY Times—they usually relegate anything about publishing to the interior pages. What was all the hubbub about? Cat mysteries!
For those not up-to-date on genres and subgenres, cat mysteries (maybe we should call them “fur punk”?) represent a subgenre of cozy mysteries, which are in turn a subgenre of mysteries. A cozy mystery is usually more than a short story but not quite a novel set in a small town; it usually involves ordinary people, not professional crime fighters. Think Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote fame and you’ll have the idea (OK, she was a mystery writer who was almost a crime fighter, but an unusual number of murders occurred in her little Maine town). No big, Earth-shaking themes, just a simple murder involving simple, ordinary people.
A cat mystery is a cozy where a cat is instrumental in solving a crime. The WSJ was reporting on a feud between Ms. Murphy and Ms. Fry, two authors of books in that sub-sub-genre. The hubbub is about whether the cats should talk! I guess readers are weighing in on both sides. Huh? If you don’t know who these authors are, that’s OK. Their cats can’t be real, so their schlock is closer to Harry Potter’s fantasy world than crime-solving. I’m a cat person myself, but really? Modern cats are smart—they make humans their slaves, after all—but they’re not that smart!
Sorry, Ms. Murphy, Ms. Fry, and all readers of their books, you should follow Clancy’s dictum. To paraphrase, fiction has to seem real. And there I have you beat! In my novel The Secret Lab, I offer a cat mystery that is good, solid fiction because it could be real! Your books don’t stand a chance, ladies. My story is set in a “small town,” the International Space Station of the future (astronaut Scott Kelly just spent a year there—no cats yet, of course); the novel involves ordinary people living there, not professional crime fighters; and its main character is a super-intelligent mutant cat who can teach you calculus. Moreover, my Mr. Paws will outsleuth your Joe Grey and Rags any day! I guarantee it.
To readers of this newsletter and blog. There’s a disconnect between the number of people who visit this website and blog (2015 set a new record and 2016 is continuing the upward trend—2400+ on March 4 alone), and the number of readers of my books. I can’t imagine why that happens. I don’t have an IT guru who tracks visit histories (that sounds too much like the NSA). Maybe you only like to read my rants in the op-ed posts? Or book and movie reviews? Maybe you just like free reading and aren’t willing to pay for (or endure?) a full-length novel even though it costs less than a McDonald’s meal and much less than a trip to the movies? Whatever the reason, I can understand the reluctance to try a new author. I’ve overcome that hurdle and try new authors almost every week. Let me help you overcome your timidity.
All my ebooks except one are $3.99 or less. If you feel you can’t spring for that, sample my writing! First, there are many short stories archived in “Steve’s Shorts” (maybe you’ve already read them?)—these span many genres. Second, I just finished posting part four of Escape from Earth, a free sci-fi novella—more than a short story, not quite a novel, but interesting and entertaining reading I’ve offered as a freebie. Finally, check out Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java, an introduction to my Detectives Chen and Castilblanco, and Fantastic Encores!, short stories involving characters from the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” and that inimitable Dr. Carlos Obregon, medical officer serving on the starship Brendan—both at $0.99 and more filling than any McDonald’s dollar meal.
Rogue Planet. Coming soon! Check out the pre-release excerpt. You can read it for free when it’s released by signing up to review it at steve@stevenmmoore.com—a free copy will be sent in return for an honest review. Or, you can just buy it. The ebook versions will be $2.99 and available in all formats. I haven’t decided on the price for the paper version (Create Space)—probably $9.99. I run my book business on a barebones budget; I pass the savings on to my readers.
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[Want more sci-fi thrills and conspiracies? Have you tried the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy”? The clones make their appearance in Full Medical, they combine forces with the mutant in Evil Agenda, and they save the world in No Amber Waves of Grain. These aren’t comic book characters like X-Men or other Marvel toons—they’re real people who try to halt a dystopian future. Available in all ebook formats.]
In libris libertas….
